Thursday, December 4, 2008

Apostasy

I was reading this morning and came across another verse that I felt pointed toward the idea of apostasy, which is an abandoning of what one believed in, as a faith, political party, principles, etc, rather than the Calvinist (Baptist) view of "once saved always saved" or the Armenian (Methodist) view of being able to lose salvation. This post is really simply in addition to my previous post (which I wrote before ever knowing the word apostasy) which can be found here.

In Mark 13 Jesus is telling about the future to his disciples. About the wars and antichrist etc. In verse 13, he says this: "All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved." If Jesus says that "he who stands firm to the end will be saved" then it sounds to me that some will not stand firm to the end. Some will abandon or give up on their faith.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just got into a discussion about Calvinism and Armenian. Do you have any other verses pointing to the idea of apostasy?

Kirby said...

I'm not sure who this is. I have a book on apostasy that I can let you look at if you get in touch with me. It will be a lot more helpful than me spouting off verses. Here are a few, some may make sense, some may not.

Galatians 5:4 - Here he is referring to the Jews that had once known the Grace of Christ, then had gone back to the law and were fallen from grace. To fall is to be separated from.

John 15:1,2 - "I am the vine" Jesus called both the ones that he cut off and the ones that stayed "branches." They were both once in Christ, the true vine; but one was a branch cut off from Christ.

2 Peter 2:20-22

Matthew 25:30 - All were equally servants belonging to one master (Christ), the one that didn't was cast out into darkness for not being faithful.

Matthew 25:1-13 - They were all virgins (a state of personal purity). Half were wise and ready for the Lord. The Lord did not say, "I never knew you," but did say, "I know you not."

Joshua 24:15 - "Choose you this day whom you will serve." You choose everyday who will serve, its not a one day decision that carries over to every other day.

Luke 9:23 - "take up his cross DAILY"

2 Peter 2:4 - God spared not one angel that sinned (including Satan)

John 6:66 - "From that time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him." They did walk with Jesus but went back and walked no more with him.

Revelation 3:15 - there were some he said he would spue out of his mouth. They had been in the mouth of God or they could not have been spued out.

Matthew 10:22 - "but he who stands firm to the end will be saved." If you do not endure to the end you will not be saved, but if it isn't possible to not endure to the end, then why would scripture warn against it.

There are even more than that. And some can be found at my other posts that I've already done on this topic.